Roger F. Noriega was nominated by President George W. Bush for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs on March 24, 2003; he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 29, 2003. Ambassador Noriega is responsible for managing U.S. foreign policy and promoting U.S. interests in the region. Image File history File links Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Source: http://www. ...

Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary, Ambassador Noriega served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States from 2001 to 2003. Before his appointment to the OAS, Ambassador Noriega was a senior staff member for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate. From 1994 to 1997 he was a senior staff member for the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ambassador Noriega also served as the Senior Policy Advisor and Alternate U.S. Representative at the U.S. Mission to the OAS from 1990 through 1993, and as Senior Advisor for Public Information at the OAS from 1993 to 1994.

Other tours of duty in the Department of State have been with U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bureaus for Inter-American Affairs and Public Affairs, where he was a Program Officer from 1987 through 1990 and a Senior Writer/Editor from 1986 until 1987. Prior to that, he served as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant for Congressman Bob Whittaker (R-Kan.), U.S. House of Representatives, from 1983 until 1986.

President Bush also appointed Ambassador Noriega to the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation.

In December 2001, the Government of Peru decorated Ambassador Noriega as “Grand Master of the Order of the Sun&#x201D. In 2003, the President of Nicaragua invested Ambassador Noriega as a member of the “Order of the Sun". Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1959, he attended Washburn University in Topeka where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981.